Gary's Photos

Metallica Windmill

Experiments December 2012, Mountain City, TX

Taking a photo looking into the sun is usually fraught with problems. There is a windmill just outside of my town that poses a certain degree of artistic flavor to it. The day I shot this picture, the sun was just above the windmill. I wanted to capture the foreground, water tank, and the stark effect of the brambles and dead, dry Johnson grass, and, finally, the overall austerity of the scene.

Unfortunately, the bright sun captured the picture and took away many of the visions that I was seeing. In addition, it produced a lot of glare and internal lens reflections and glint. Below is the image as taken.

Equipment

Camera

Sony SLT A-77, handheld

Settings

ISO 800; Shutter 1/8000; f 5.6; 50mm; EV=0; taken in direct sunlight, UV filter

Processing

Use of Gimp to create a metallic effect.



I tried converting the image to B&W, Sepia, and adjusting the color levels. While some of these manipulations helped, they didn't convey the message I was looking for. Finally I decided to go for a metallic look. Vola, the sun and it's effect was subdued and the harsh foreground that I was seeing jumped out. I also cropped out the sun and the annoying glint in the bottom of the foreground, but decided to leave the glint reflections in around the windmill as they seemed to add to the effect and makes the photo interesting. Now the water stains on the tank are very clear and it appears as if the sun is behind the windmill blades. While this effect may be too surreal for some, it seemed to give this subject the feeling I was searching for.

Metallica Windmill